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For cinematographer George Steel, the key to “The Aeronauts,” director Tom Hooper’s $80 million film starring Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne as balloonist-scientists who soar to 35,000 feet to break records in 1862, was to take the viewer along for the ride.

When Variety visited the cast and crew on set in London, Steel was crouched into the corner of the 8-by-8 balloon basket. “Tom was adamant that it should feel like the camera was in the basket with them,” says Steel. “[Most] of the shots didn’t deviate from that. There are a few shots on a crane from outside the basket, and then we used a helicopter. If you couldn’t do it for real, Tom wasn’t interested.”

Some of the first shots were of Redmayne and Jones at 2,000 feet above the English countryside, where Steel directed helicopters and drones to capture aerial shots without VFX. Jones’ stunt double, Helen Steinway Bailey,...

  You know British business magnate Richard Branson for many things: his Virgin Records store and label, Virgin airlines and, most recently, Virgin Galactic, which hopes to send tourists into space. But did you know that back in 1991 the mogul set a record by crossing the Atlantic from Japan to Canada in a hot-air balloon? He traveled 6,700 miles at a record-breaking 245 miles per hour. Along with world-renowned balloonist Per Lindstrand, Branson turned the event into the ultimate...

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